New Canada/US Border Deal from a Socialist Perspective

      The article I chose for this post pertains to the new Canada/US border deal, as discussed in the Socialist Worker newspaper (Wood, 2012). This newspaper is anti-capitalist, and has a very different take on the stories we normally see in the news. Basically, this article states that from this new deal, both Canadian and American governments will tack when people leave or enter the country (Wood, 2012). The government states that this would actually decrease delays at the border, but from a socialist view, this is seen as an infringement of rights, as citizens will be watched whenever they decide to leave the country by land, air, or sea (Wood, 2012). Socialists also see this move as "harassment, especially for immigrants, refugees, and radicalized groups" (Wood, 2012).

The International Bridge: SSM, ON & SSM, MI

     Greg Watson, from CBC news (2011), says that as Canada has lost 40,000 failed refugee claimants, and there are 300,000 foreign students, workers, and visitors in Canada at any given time, our problem is that we do not have an exit monitoring system . Also, while there are 40,815 deportation warrants out for failed refugees, it is extremely difficult to determine which have left on their own (Watson, 2011). Alternatively, the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations has "denounced the legislation for its failure to protect civil liberties" (Watson, 2011).
     Socialists believe that the motivation behind this deal is to benefit businesses, as this deal will target people, and not corporations (Wood, 2012). Overall, they see the US and Canada as banding together to promote the flow of capital, while cracking down on the civil liberties of immigrants and refugees (Wood, 2011). The evidence they use to support this belief is that when the process for this new deal started, the only sector present was the business sector; groups involved with healthcare, labour rights, environmental protection, and security and privacy issues were not even consulted (Wood, 2012).
       An article I found in a Socialism and Democracy journal corroborates this belief in that because the immigration policies are so restrictive, they don't work to restrict migration, but end up restricting access to rights and protections once they are living and working in Canada (Sharma, as cited in Shantz, 2006). Also, socialists believe that there is an unequal distribution of rights as a result of the state's definitions of an immigrant, (illegal, or not), or refugee, and ends up serving the interests of the capital rather than immigrants and refugees themselves (Shantz, 2006). These issues end up branching out into poverty, unemployment, and exploitation by means of cheap labour, all of which are plaguing Canada's immigrant and refugee population.
   What are your thoughts on this issue? Do you think Canada should tighten it's grip on border controls, or do you think that this is another veiled attempt for the state to control new Canadians?

Shannon


                                                      References

Shantz, J.A. (2006). No one is illegal: Organizing beyond left nationalism in Fortress North America.  
Socialism and Democracy, 19(2). doi: 10.1080/08854300500122449    

Weston, G (2011). Canada-U.S. border deal will track departing travellers. CBC News. Retrieved from
 http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/12/06/weston-border-deal-exit.html

Wood, A (2012, January 11). Canada/US border deal threatens rights and freedom. Socialist Worker.
Retrieved from http://socialistworkercanada.com/2011/12/16/canadaus-border-deal-a-threat-to-rights-and-freedom//